Amex Canada - About Cookies

Published: 19 November 2013
Effective Date: 19 December 2013

American Express is committed to providing you with full and transparent information about cookie use.

What are cookies?

Cookies are small text files which are stored on your computer(s) and mobile device(s) (together devices) whenever you visit a website, mobile sites or mobile applications (together, websites). Cookies help us keep records, store preferences, track and analyze online behavior, improve advertising and otherwise manage and develop our relationship with customers and other visitors to our website. The Amex Canada websites use cookies for different reasons, for example, to:

enhance your visit, including to navigate between pages

store your user ID and password securely

store preferences and personalize home pages

identify which parts of a website you have visited and

keep track of selections in a 'shopping cart'.

A cookie cannot retrieve any other data from your hard drive, pass on computer viruses to your device, or capture your e-mail address. Each cookie is unique to your web browser. Some of the functions that cookies perform can also be achieved using alternative technology. We use the term 'cookies' in this statement to mean cookies and all similar technologies such as web beacons and pixels which are objects that are embedded in a web page and that are usually invisible to the user but allow website operators to confirm that you have viewed the web pages that you visit. They are often used in combination with a cookie to track navigation of a website. If you visit a page on our website that contains a web beacon, it communicates with your device to determine, among other things, whether you have been to that page before or viewed a particular advertisement.

Session cookies are only active during the period that you are logged onto our website and are removed when you leave. We use session cookies to maintain security, to facilitate your session and to keep track of the sections of the website that have been visited. This temporary cookie allows us to better serve you by providing conditional enhancements to your visit in accordance with your selected preferences.

Persistent cookies remain on your hard drive until you remove them through your browser’s internet security settings. Persistent cookies are used to provide a more comfortable and personalized online experience. They store user preferences such as language, thus eliminating having to make the same entries on each visit.

If you become a registered user on our website (with a designated user ID and password), we use persistent cookies so that we can provide customized information that we believe will be of value to you based on preferences indicated and, other information we have about you as an American Express customer. If you choose the "Remember Me" option as part of the Online Services log in feature on the American Express website, a small persistent cookie is created to store your user ID safely and securely.

On your next visit, your username ID will appear automatically each time you sign in from the same computer. You will still be required to type in your password to log in. To turn off this feature you must uncheck the box beside the "Remember Me" option and log in.

The "Remember Me" box is an optional feature and is intended for use on a trusted computer such as home, work, or another private computer.

It is possible to set your browser to inform you when a cookie is being placed -- this way, you have the opportunity to decide whether to accept the cookie. If you are just browsing our website and are not a registered user, you do not have to accept a cookie and you may still continue utilizing the site. However, if you will be accessing your confidential account information (such as Online Services), you must accept our website's cookies as they are essential for website administration and security.

The types of cookies Amex Canada uses and their purposes

Essential Cookies
These cookies are vital to the basic performance of our website; they enable critical authentication and validation, session management, and fraud prevention functions.

Examples:

Cookies that -

identify if the user has successfully logged on

enable validation of the user, and session management for Amex Canada applications

store the authentication (secure login) data for our merchant clients when they log in

enable fraud tracking and prevention functions

Functionality Cookies
These cookies provide you with additional functionality and enable us to remember the settings that you may have previously applied, such as language preference and font size.

Examples:

Cookies that -

Allow us to remember what preferences you may have set

Allow us to remember your login details, like your user ID

Performance Cookies

These cookies track which pages you visit more frequently and how you use the website and its links. They also allow Amex Canada to promptly identify and fix any issues that might impact your journey within our website. The information that these cookies collect is not personal information, and is evaluated in terms of pages visited, not the physical person visiting them.

Examples:

Cookies that -

allow testing different versions of the same page, so we can assess which page layout provides the best customer experience

enable analysis of visitor information such as browser usage, new visitor numbers, response to marketing activity, and shopping times.

Amex Canada Marketing Cookies

These cookies ensure that the marketing messages you receive on the Amex Canada website are relevant to you.

Examples:

Cookies that -

allow us to make sure that Amex Canada online marketing and experiences are relevant to you

hold an identifier for the user, which, when used in conjunction with other offline data, enables us to recognise our logged in customer and provide personalised marketing to them.

Third Party Marketing Cookies

These cookies may be placed in your browser by a third-party advertising network or company that helps deliver the advertisements (‘ads’) that you see online. These 'third-party cookies' may be used to create a profile about your online activities and deliver ads tailored to you and your interests. Please note that Amex Canada has relationships with these carefully-selected and monitored third parties or suppliers who set these cookies in order to show you different products and services based on what you appear to be interested in.

Amex Canada participates in the Digital Advertising Alliance of Canada (DAAC) self-regulatory program and adheres to the DAAC Principles for Online Behavioral Advertising. Click here to learn more about the DAAC and your choices.

Navigating to other sites: When providing you links to other websites, we recommend you read the privacy and cookies policies on those websites as Amex Canada is not responsible or liable for their privacy practices.

How to turn off cookies in your browser

Amex Canada cookies do not store sensitive information such as your name, address or payment details; they simply hold the 'key' or 'id' that, once you're signed in, is associated with this information. However, if you'd prefer to restrict, block or delete cookies from our websites or any other website, you can use your browser to do this, but it will also impact other sites that you visit. Each browser is different and your browser ‘Help’ function will show you how to do this.

Please note that if you choose to disable cookies, it will affect how the Amex Canada website works. For example, while you will still be able to view the public website, you won't be able to log on to our secure journey, check your account balances, or make payments.

Cookies and legal requirements

Amex Canada is constantly reviewing our privacy and information practices in light of privacy law and guidelines provided by regulators to ensure transparency, provide greater control and flexibility for our customers.